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Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay.
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity.Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants.
Nuclear fission is a substantial part of the world’s energy mix, but out in the broader universe, fission is much harder to come by. Until now.
Photofission is a process in which a nucleus, after absorbing a gamma ray, undergoes nuclear fission and splits into two or more fragments.. The reaction was discovered in 1940 by a small team of engineers and scientists operating the Westinghouse Atom Smasher at the company's Research Laboratories in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. [1]
The discovery of nuclear fission by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, [9] [10] and its theoretical explanation (and naming) by their collaborators Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, [11] [12] opened up the possibility of creating a nuclear chain reaction with uranium, but initial experiments were unsuccessful. [13] [14] [15] [16]
Plutonium-240, in addition to being a neutron emitter after fission, is a gamma emitter, and so is responsible for a large fraction of the radiation from stored nuclear weapons. Whether out on patrol or in port, submarine crew members routinely live and work in very close proximity to nuclear weapons stored in torpedo rooms and missile tubes ...
The fission process often produces gamma rays and releases a very large amount of energy, even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay. Scientists already knew about alpha decay and beta decay , but fission assumed great importance because the discovery that a nuclear chain reaction was possible led to the development of nuclear power ...
Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons , the release of heat energy ( kinetic energy of the nuclei), and gamma rays .